Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LUCASVILLE — For a while, everything that could have gone wrong for Valley was going wrong.
In Friday night’s matchup against South Gallia, the Indians saw themselves lose a double-digit lead in the second quarter before heading into halftime facing a six-point deficit.
And, after losing all momentum, it seemed as though they were well on their way to a fourth loss in five games.
However, Jace Copley would lay all those worries to rest in the second half. Firing off 24 second half points and finishing the game with 37 total, Copley put his team on his back and led Valley to a 79-71 victory over the Rebels.
“[Copley] is, in all aspects of the game, an excellent player,” Indians head coach Craig Tackett said. “We ask a lot of him, but we know he can give it to us, and it’s a result of the work he puts in.”
“I give all the credit to my teammates,” Copley added. “Without them moving the ball and finding me, I’m not going to get shots.”
Valley (3-5) started strong with a balanced attack on offense. Parker Lute and Brenden Vice each contributed four points in the opening quarter, while Copley and Chase Davis were successful from outside to put the Indians ahead by a 14-7 margin after the opening frame.
The second appeared to start out the same way as Valley’s lead extended into double digits. But that’s when the Rebels (5-3) decided to awaken.
South Gallia’s Tanner Boothe caught fire, starting with five consecutive points to cut the lead back down to seven. From there, Boothe rounded off 18 points in the second quarter alone to put his team in the lead. The senior finished off the half by sinking a half-court heave as the halftime buzzer sounded, bringing the Rebels into the break with a 36-30 advantage.
“I was frustrated that we gave up 29 points in the second quarter,” Tackett said. “Our talk at halftime was how we could combat that, and how we could keep them from doing that in the second half.”
The answer to that question was simple – Jace Copley.
Valley found its rhythm again in the third, and Copley was the catalyst. After 13 points in the first half, Copley doubled his scoring total in just the third quarter, putting Valley in front by a 60-56 tally going into the final eight minutes.
But even with the Indians climbing back into the lead, South Gallia still hung in there. Gabe Frazee, who had been perfect from outside in the second half, knocked down two more 3-pointers and scored another bucket inside to cut the lead to 66-64 with 4:13 left in the game.
The Indians had an answer for that, too.
After a Brenden Vice bucket, Copley scored from inside on back-to-back possessions to push the lead back up to eight with a little over three minutes to go, pounding the nails in the coffin.
Copley finished with 37 points, lifting Valley to a hard-earned eight-point win.
“I knew coming in that [South Gallia] was a team that was going to fight for all 32 minutes,” Tackett said. “I think our kids responded well, and I’m extremely proud of their effort in the second half.”
Following Copley’s 37-point performance was Vice, who scored 15 points and tied for the team-high in rebounds with nine. Parker Lute also finished with 11 points, and Jaylen Bender contributed with nine for the Indians.
For South Gallia, Frazee and Boothe split a 50-piece, scoring 25 points each. Brycen Stanley followed with 18 points of his own.
While the Rebels will enjoy a 10-day break and return to action on Jan. 2 at Green, Valley went right back to work on Saturday, facing Heath in Logan’s Hocking Hills Holiday Jamboree.
There, the Indians suffered an eight-point loss. But Tackett and Copley each feel like their Indians are starting to find their footing.
“I feel like we’ve made a lot of leaps this season,” Tackett said. “We just have to take it one day at a time in practice, and one game at a time on game days. It’s going to be a battle every night.”
“We have a lot of talent on our team that a lot of people don’t really see,” Copley said. “I believe in us, and I think the biggest thing is believing in ourselves and building that chemistry.”
BOX SCORE
South Gallia: 7-29-20-15 — 71
Valley: 14-16-30-19 — 79
South Gallia scoring: Boothe 25, Frazee 25, Stanley 18, Sanders 3
Valley scoring: Copley 37, Vice 15, Lute 11, Bender 9, Davis 6, Dillow 1
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